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The Pre-Filmation Era in MOTUC Thread

He-Man slaying monsters with his trusty axe? It's here. Tri-Klops kicking ass and taking names as a bounty hunter? Right here!Teela as a hot blonde who fights like a fury? It's here.The Goddess (or Green Goddess)? She's here as well.Prince Adam as a womanizer? We have it!Skeletor going commando? It's in da house!Alfredo Alcala/Mike Texiera art? We got it!

This is the thread to talk and discuss about getting the figures or variants in MOTUC which are representative of Masters of the Universe before the more kid friendly and lighter Filmation revamp in mid-1983. Masters of the Universe originally showcased He-Man as a heroic barbarian from the jungle in a post-apocaylptic fantasy world. While this was the original version of He-Man, the majority of the fans was introduced to He-Man through the Filmation canon.

Hopefully, we will continue to get these repaints OR redos in MOTUC as bonus figures or some kind of extra.

I ALWAYS thought that the pre-Filmation era was an under-used and very fertile time for great stories.

I loved the idea of the rebuilding of a society after the Great War that laid to waste most of Eternia. It was the perfect explaination for the sci-fi weapons meeting swords and sorcery.

"The planet's inhabitants are dealing with the aftermath of the Great Wars, which devastated the civilizations that once ruled supreme over all lesser beings. The Wars left behind advanced machinery and weaponry known only to select people. An early incarnation of the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull gives He-Man some of these weapons, and he sets out to defend the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil villain Skeletor. He-Man possesses one half of the Power Sword; the second half is possessed by Skeletor...."

This scenario had SO many potential tales to tell and I always felt like Filmation took the easy way out in turning He-Man into a Superman-secret identity character.

oh good lord!! I guess Evil lynn hadn't yet been introduced at the time, huh? poor teela.....

question is, why would Skeletor be attracted to someone who's not even his own species? the same principal as Jabba being attracted to Leia.... yuk!! was teela the only woman in Eternia, that every man was after her? lol Cringer looks really peeved in that coloring book pic.

lol@ adam bending the weights in the pic. Kind of gives away his identity as He-man. lol, what's with the mini-skirt? almost looks worse than pink tights...poor Adam...he's never had a decent wardrobe imo, untill 200x.

This is my favorite thread! Nice work. I love the pre-filmation motu universe. It's filled with such mystique. When I saw GG at Sdcc I almost passed out. I hope we get more figures from this era. The early mini-comics the sword of skeletor, he-man the power sword, vengence of skeletor, dragons gift, etc., that stuff was amazing. I spent hours lost in that universe, amazed the whole time! Great stuff!

[QUOTE=Multibot;2166597]oh good lord!! I guess Evil lynn hadn't yet been introduced at the time, huh? poor teela.....

question is, why would Skeletor be attracted to someone who's not even his own species? the same principal as Jabba being attracted to Leia.... yuk!! was teela the only woman in Eternia, that every man was after her?

If keldor was randors half brother, he would have to be half human, so that half could be attracted to teela.

Last edited by Faceless Glow; August 1, 2009 at 01:52pm.
Reason: Automerged Doublepost

If keldor was randors half brother, he would have to be half human, so that half could be attracted to teela.

In the four original Mini comics that came out during the first wave of figures, Skeletor wasn't related to Randor--in fact, there wasn't even a Randor around then. Skeletor was supposedly an extra-dimensional alien that was brought to Eternia by a rip in the dimensional wall caused by the Great Wars.

As a little kid I figured he wanted to marry Tee-La for either some horrible reason (like he needed a wife to sacrifice for some horrible spell) or it was just a situation like with King Kong and his girl--he was simply enamored with her for some unfathomable reason.

"HA! If such as you are the best that this world can muster, then it is already won!" Trap-Jaw, from the Menace of Trap-Jaw!

[QUOTE=Faceless Glow;2166601]This is my favorite thread! Nice work. I love the pre-filmation motu universe. It's filled with such mystique. When I saw GG at Sdcc I almost passed out. I hope we get more figures from this era. The early mini-comics the sword of skeletor, he-man the power sword, vengence of skeletor, dragons gift, etc., that stuff was amazing. I spent hours lost in that universe, amazed the whole time! Great stuff!

Originally Posted by Multibot

oh good lord!! I guess Evil lynn hadn't yet been introduced at the time, huh? poor teela.....

question is, why would Skeletor be attracted to someone who's not even his own species? the same principal as Jabba being attracted to Leia.... yuk!! was teela the only woman in Eternia, that every man was after her?

If keldor was randors half brother, he would have to be half human, so that half could be attracted to teela.

Skeletor created Teela as a clone of the Goddess so he could raise her and marry her for her power but Man at Arms came to the rescue. I`ll be getting 2 Teela`s, 1 for Teela and 1 for the Goddess, I don`t need a loose Green Goddess.

Skeletor created Teela as a clone of the Goddess so he could raise her and marry her for her power but Man at Arms came to the rescue. I`ll be getting 2 Teela`s, 1 for Teela and 1 for the Goddess, I don`t need a loose Green Goddess.

oh.... this is why i prefer Filmation. teela was her own character & not a clone of someone else. plus it's what introduced me to motu to begin with. I was too young to remember anything pre-filmation, & wasn't a comic reader back then.
I do kind of look forward to GG, to use as a new character. i only need one teela, though, to use without snake armor. GG will have the armor. (I wonder if she'll have the other Teela head done in green or not?) not sure what to do with the extra harness & weapons for He-man though...since He-man already has them.

anyway, she's a goddess. which is beyond any mortals in my mind. She'll most likely be the one who offers advice in my mythos, since gods & goddesses can't interfere with the affairs of mortals. i imagine if she were evil, she could cause a stir though.
any, i'm glad that the pre-filmation fans are getting some representation with GG coming. I'm sure others will follow, like caucasian stratos, red beastman, etc. simple repaints that would be a no-brainer.

While I'm a fan of it all, I can do without Red Beast Man. It only made one appearance, maybe b/c that's what he was supposed to look like originally ("Red Beast"). While the green version of the Goddess only made one appearance too, the minicomic in question came packed with his orange action figure. So...even back then I figured it was just a crappy colouring mistake.
Teela was always her own person to me, and I never knew of the "clone" business b/c I never had the minicomic that said that. (In fact, I never got any of the 2nd wave of minicomics...I just kept getting the first ones over and over iirc). She's just the daughter of the sorceress (Goddess) to me. Sired by Fisto (I like the MYP stuff too).

Some of those Alcala's creatures from mini comics like dragon's gift, the obelisk, siege of avion or masks of power would be neat!

Concerning the MotUC canon, no matter how much I love the original Barbanian/ Post Apocalyptic world pre-Filmation, the Adam/ He-Man story is too iconic for Mattel to let go, and anyway, it's already clear in the bios that it's the offical MotUC canon (Keldor included). What it seems to me is that Mattel/ 4HM will be drinking from the original sources, and adapting it to the canon already established. This will probably include Adam in purple tighs, and as a He-Man recolored (I couldn't care less for a second Adam in a mini skirt like the pre-Filmation version actually), but what I'd really like to see is Adam as it was originally conceived in the series bible and later (very well I may add) adapted by MYP: Not He-Man in other clothes but a younger man/ boy who had a slight resemblance to He-Man. The clothes could be more like the Filmation version or the pre-Filmation if you prefer, but that's the Adam I'd like to get. But unfortunately, that's not really what I think Mattel will release

As I've mentioned on many-a-thread, the pre-Filmation version is my first love in MOTU.
I have a lot of love for the Filmation version, but at the same time, it made it a bit more childish. Pre-Filmation had so many good concepts that were sadly dropped. And while I like all of the figures, I wasn't so keen that most later ones moved away from a barbarian, swords & sorcery feel in favour of different styles.

I've love to see a Procrutus figure (the four-armed being who lives inside Eternia - see minicomic "The Magic Stealer!") for example.

And anything to do with two-halves of the power sword and suchlike is great with me.

And yes, Skeletor did always seem to want to either sacrafice Teela or make her his bride!
I also think the Teela cloned-from-Goddess concept was really dark and should have been used further.

I posted this in another section but it might as well go in here too. A scan of the back of an old sticker album. Check out Stratos' bio--not just pre-filmation, but pre-everything!
I also like the Zodac is referred to as a bounty hunter.

"He-Man and the Power Sword" was my introduction to the MOTU mythos, so I've always held a certain love of it. A love that's grown more as I've grown and becoming more interested in heroic fantasy from both a personal and scholarly stand point.

Really great thread idea, I had no idea there was so MUCH pre-filmation lore out there.